Boiled Noodles With Ground Pork & Bean Sauce ( Jah Jeung Mien )

For The Sauce:

1/3 cup chicken stock
1 Tbs double dark soy sauce, dark soy sauce, or mushroom soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbs Shao-Hsing wine or dry sherry
1 tsp Chinese white rice vinegar or distilled vinegar
2 1/2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
pinch freshly ground white pepper

6 Cups water
6 ounces mung bean sprouts, washed and rained
1/2 lb fresh eggless noodles ( size of # 17 linguine )
1 1/2 tbs peanut oil
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 lb lean ground pork
1 1/2 tbs hot chili bean paste
1 tsp chili sauce
1/4 cup finely sliced scallion
1 1/2 tbs minced red bell pepper

1. In a small bowl, mix together the sauce ingredients and reserve.

2. To blanch the bean sprouts, place the 6 cups water in a pot, cover, and bring to a boild over high heat. Place the sprouts in a mesh strainer and lower into the boiling water for 10 seconds. Transfer to a bowl or ice water.

3. Return the water to a boil. Add the noodles, stir, and separate with chopstick. Cook until al dente, about 1 minute. Turn off the heat, run cold water into the pot, and drain. Repeat the rinsing and drain thoroughly.

4. Remove the sprouts from the ice water and drain thoroughly.

5. Heat the wok over high heat for 30 seconds. Add the peanut oil and coat the wok with it using a spatula. When a wisp of white smoke appears, add the garlic and stir until lightly browned, about 30 seconds. Add the pork and stir will to loosen. Add the chili bean sauce, chili sauce, and scallion and cook, stirring, until the pork is no longer pink, 1 minute - 1 1/2 minutes. Stir the sauce, pour in, mix well, and cook for 1 minute. Turn off the heat.

6. Arrange the bean sprouts around the edge of a platter. Place the noodles in the center of the platters and pour the pork mixture over the noodles. Sprinkle with the minced red pepper and serve.

How To Open A Coconut

Tools you'll need:



If you examine your coconut you will see 2-3 dark indentations on one end. These are the weakest points. We will be utilizing these guys to drain the coconut milk before pulverizing this puppy.



Take the hammer and drive the nail through each of the holes. I usually do all of them. Depending on the type of coconut you have this could take a few swings.



Place the coconut over a container and give it some time for the juice to drain. If nothing is coming out you can drive the nail through the other side of the coconut to allow air to enter the top while the liquid drains from the bottom. If your nail bends try using a slimmer one (or even a drill), the hole doesn't need to be big.



Take the drained coconut and place it in the center of a towel that is large enough to be wrapped completely around it.



Wrap the coconut up in such a way that all of the loose ends are secured underneath of the coconut so that when it breaks open no pieces will go flying.



Time for some fun! Grab your hammer and bash away! I wouldn't recommend doing this on your counter, you will need to hit is rather hard. Do it on the floor, or better yet on brick or concrete. Some coconuts have grooves partially cut along the sides to make opening easier, if you have one of these, instead of wrapping up the coconut you can use the opposite end of the hammer and whack it around the groove until it splits
in two.



Once it's cracked open you can hit it a few more times to try and break up the larger pieces some more. This will make seperating the meat from the shell easier.



Here's your prize, yummy coconut meat. Mmmmmm... Using a small knife, pry the meat away from the shell, be very careful not to cut yourself! Better put on some music,
this could take a while.



The thin layer of shell that will cling to most of the coconut meat shards can be cut or scraped away with a sharp knife. Again, be careful. This will take a while to do so don't try and rush.



Whew, all done! Go ahead and rinse off your pure-white coconut meat and marvel at it's delicious glow. Mmmmmmm.




Your storage options include:

Refrigerator (2-7 days)
Freezer (1-3 months)
Shredded/Grated and dehydrated (6-12 months)

There is another way of cracking a coconut by just using the blunt side of a cleaver.



And here is the story that goes with this movie:

QuickCracking a Coconut version:

1. Hold coconut over a bowl in one hand such that the "midriff" rests in the middle of your palm, with the tip on one end and the eyes on the other.
2. Whack the coconut with the back (that is to say the blunt side) of the cleaver a few times all around the center until it cracks open cleanly into two nearly equal halves. Make sure you use the blunt side of the cleaver.
3. Catch the juice in the bowl as it drains from the cracks.

Some people try to get into a coconut by banging on it with a hammer. Others suggest poking holes in the eyes to drain the liquid before hammering. This sounds like a good idea, but if you have tried it before, you may have discovered it isn't quite so easy. The eyes are small and the surrounding shell quite thick and hard. After much effort to jab them with a sharp object or puncture them with a nail, you may end up with a slow trickle, taking a lot longer to drain all the liquid out than you may have patience for.

A Cracking a Coconutquick and easy, no-nonsense way to crack a coconut is to use a cleaver. Holding it with one hand such that the "midriff" rests in the middle of your palm, with the tip on one end and the eyes on the other, whack the coconut with the back of the cleaver a few times all around the center until it cracks open cleanly into two nearly equal halves. Make sure you use the blunt side of the cleaver. Do this over a bowl in the sink to catch the juice as it drains from the cracks. If the juice tastes fresh and sweet, enjoy it as a refreshment by itself or reserve for use in extracting cream from the flesh.

Preparing a Coconut for Pressing Milk

Coconut If you wish to make coconut milk from scratch and would rather use a food processor or blender than a hand-held implement to shred the thick flesh,when cracking the shell, whack the shell when you first crack it just enough to make a small fissure sufficient for draining the liquid, but keep the coconut whole. (The taste and smell of the juice will tell whether the coconut is good or whether it has gone rancid.) Place the coconut in a hot oven (400-450 degrees) for fifteen to twenty minutes. The heat from the oven loosens the flesh inside from the shell. Do not leave the coconut in the oven too long because you do not want to cook the flesh; cooked coconut meat will not yield fresh-tasting coconut milk. Cracking the shell and draining the liquid before placing in the hot oven prevent the heated coconut from exploding, an experience you want to avoid in your kitchen.

After the coconut has been in the hot oven long enough, remove it and allow it to cool until you are able to handle it without burning your hands. Then whack the coconut all around the center line with the back of a cleaver, as described earlier, to crack into two halves. Using a knife or screw driver, pry the meat out from the shell. If it is hard to do, whack the shell into smaller sections.

If you wish, peel off the brown skin attached to the shell side of the white meat. Break the meat into smaller chunks and chop as finely as possible in your blender or food processor. Transfer the chopped meat to a bowl and add two cups of boiling water. Allow it to steep about ten minutes, then strain through a fine-mesh strainer into another bowl. Gather the pulp with your hands and squeeze all the fluid out from it; this fluid will be the creamiest part of the milk. You may wish to wrap the pulp with a dampened muslin cloth to ease the task of pressing.

Add another two cups of boiling water to the pulp, steep, strain and press again. This will be lighter milk. Judging from the consistency from this second pressing, you may decide whether or not to do a third. In Thai cooking, coconut cream from the first pressing is used to make rich coconut desserts. It is also reserved for frying pastes in the making of curries, with the lighter milk added later during cooking to constitute the sauce. The lighter milk is also saved for soup stocks and to stew or pre-cook various meats.

Cajun / Blackened Salmon

Today's special (sale) on my grocery store was fresh wild sockeyed salmon. So I asked the fish monger if he can fillet the fish for me. He said in order to do that then I have to buy the whole salmon, "Fine" I said. So he started working filleting the fish. One of this day I will have to get a fish knife that is sharp enough so I can fillet my own fish. In the mean time, all I want to do to this fresh salmon is making something super easy and simple for our lunch. When I lived in the States, I always like to order cajun or blackened catfish. They are super tasty and surprisingly easy to make.

Off course you can always buy the cajun mix in the grocery store, but isn't that more fun to make it on your own? Plus this way you can even add more cayenne pepper to give it an extra kick to your fish.

Don't believe me that it is very easy? Go ahead...read on...

Blackened Red Snapper / Salmon Fillets

Serves 6


2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

6 four-ounce red-snapper fillets, with skin,with skin ( or salmon )

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 Lemon for spritzing the fish ( optional )

1. In a small bowl, combine paprika, oregano, thyme, cayenne, sugar, salt, and black pepper. Set spice mixture aside.

2. Place fillets on a clean, dry work surface, skin side up, and cut three to four shallow slits across skin to keep it from curling up while cooking. Turn fillets over, and sprinkle the top of each fillet with a heaping teaspoon of the reserved spice mixture; pat gently with hands to make spice mixture stick. Cover, and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

3. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a heavy skillet. When hot, but not smoking, add half the fillets, seasoned side down. Cook until well browned, about 2 minutes. Flip; cook until fish is cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes more. Carefully wipe skillet with a paper towel. Repeat with remaining oil and fillets; serve.

This recipe is from Martha Stewart website, when I make it, I don't even have to put it in the refrigerator. The seasoning stick to the fish just fine. There is another way to make the seasoning, you can add 2 Tbs of all-purpose flour so that the whole fish will be covered by the seasoning then you can pan-fried it and get a crispier fish. I like it this way better. Oh yeah... you can substitute the flour with 2 Tbs of yellow cornmeal to get even more crispy fish.

You can double the blackend mix then store them in a tight lid container for next time. You can use this mix with shrimps, other type of fish too. This mix is pretty versatile to use.

Before I forget, since I don't use snapper, with a whole length of salmon, I can't flip them to fry the other side without risking of breaking the fish apart ( taste the same but it will be uglier ), so what I did was, I pan-fried the skin side first, then I sprits some oil ( I use oil mister ) to the meat side and just put the fish and the fish pan ( instead of round, it has an oval shape ) in the oven to broil for just few minutes. The length of time you have to put the fish in the oven depend on the thickness of the fish . My fish is about 3 cm thick, so I just put it under the broiler for 3 minutes. This is because I already have the fish at room temperature when I start to cook it. Don't forget as well to make sure that your pan/skillet can be use for oven. Not all of them are.

For side dish, the same grocery where I get the fish also has a special on sugar snap peas so I use that for the side dish. I cook them briefly on my wok then when I want to serve the fish, I just put them in the same pan. So we can all dig in ...

Japanese BBQ From Scratch

After eating a great meat at Umai Sushikanyesterday, today I want to cook a Japanese food from scratch. Since Kobe Beef is way too expensive , I guess I have to settle with buying beef tenderloin. I don't know why but buying beef tenderloin in Yaohan ( Asian grocery store that I frequented ) cost a lot less than if I buy from Save-on foods for example.


Anyway, from Practical Japanese Cooking by Shizuo Tsuji, and I am drawn to his recipe for Gyuniku ami-yaki which translate to Grilled Beef.

I wish when I cook this food I have a table grill, actually the word ami-yaki - literally means "net grilling" - in which meat, fish, or vegetables are grilled on a wire net over a high flame or red-hot coals. In the case of meat, the key point is to sear only the ouside surface, leaving a touch of red inside. Here high-quality, well-marbled cuts have been used, but for a lighter taste, use fillet or leaner cuts of sirloin, or try using this method for chicken, pork (grill well, of course), or duck. Though the beef is served with 2 complementary dressings - a rich sesame sauce and the light, refreshing lemon-soy dipping sauce - it is also wonderful with a good mustard or lemon juice and salt.

If you don't want to bother with making the sauce you can buy them in bottle from the store, they look like this:



But I really strongly suggest that you try to make it from scratch because I have taste both sauce, from the bottle and also the one from this recipe, and I think the one made from scratch has more superior taste than the commercial one. Plus, I don't think they are that hard to make....

Here is the recipe:

GRILLED BEEF ( GYUNIKU AMI-YAKI )

Serve 4

1 lb well-marbled sirloin or tenderloin beef
8 fresh shiitake mushrooms, washed and stems removed, or 8 fresh brown mushrooms, washed and trimmed
2 white long onions or 1/2 medium onion
8 small sweet green peppers or 2 bell peppers

LEMON-SOY DIPPING SAUCE ( PONZU )

7 tbs lemon juice
7 tbs dark soy sauce
5 tbs rice vinegar
5 tsp mirin
1 Tbs Tamari soy sauce
1/4 cup loose bonito flakes (1/6 oz/5 g)
1-inch (2 1.2-cm) length kelp ( konbu )

SESAME DIPPING SAUCE

2 tbs white sesame paste
1 tbs sugar
4 tbs dark soy sauce
1 tbs mirin, alcohol burned off
2 tbs sake, alcohol burned off
3 tbs bonito stock ( dashi )

TO PREPARE:

Make the Lemon-Soy Dipping sauce: Mix together all the ingredients and referate for 24 hrs to allow flavor to fully mature. Strain to clarify.

Combine all the Sesame Dipping Sauce ingredients in a blender and whir to a smooth paste ( or grind sesame paste in a mortar and pestle, then add the remaining ingredients in order and one by one, grinding as you go )

TIPS # 1: if you toast then grind the sesame seeds instead of buying it in a bottle, the sauce will have nuttier flavor. Plus it's cheaper.


Pic: Toasting the sesame seeds to bring out the flavor.


Pic: Grind the sesame seeds into paste using Japanese style mortar.


Pic: Add the rest of the ingredients for the Sesame Dipping Sauce one by one and mix it well.

TO MAKE:

Slice the beef into 1/4 x 3/4 x 2-inch (1/2 x 2 x 5-cm) strips. Score the mushroom caps with a shallow diamond pattern. Score the long onions and then cut into 1-inch (3-cm) lengths ( or cut the onion into 1/2 inch (1 cm) slices and secure the rings with a toothpick or bamboo skewer). Remove the stems from the sweet green peppers ( or core, seed, and cut the bell peppers into strips).



Grill the vegetables and meat over hot coals (or on a wire net over a hot gas flame ). Grill the meat as desired; grill the vegetables until the surface of each is just tender ( the onion should be slightly translucent). Serve a bowl of each sauce to each diner. Eat the food hot from the grill.





TIPS # 2: If you don't have tamari soy sauce, make a simple, flavored soy sauce instead of the Lemon-Soy Dipping Sauce. Combine 7 tbs dark soy sauce, 1/3 cup sake with alcohol burned off, 7 Tbs lemon juice, 1-inch length kelp, and 1/4 cup loose bonito flakes. Refrigerate for 24 hrs. Strain to clarify.

TIPS # 3 : To burn off alcohol, heat the sake or mirin in a saucepan, ignite, and wait until the flame burns itself out.


NOTE: Tamari (たまり) - Produced mainly in the Chūbu region of Japan, tamari is produced mainly from soybean, with only a small amount of wheat. Consequently, it is much darker in appearance and richer in flavor than koikuchi. It is the "original" Japanese soy sauce, as its recipe is closest to the soy sauce originally introduced to Japan from China. Technically, this variety is known as miso-damari (味噌溜り), as this is the liquid that runs off miso as it matures.

For accompanying this Grilled Meats, I made this wonderful shrimp and avocado on a bed of lettuce salad. To ease the guilt from eating too much red meat maybe?

Always Looking For New Inspiration On What To Cook

Yes, I think it is important to always on the look out for new inspiration on what to cook. Lately, everytime we went out to eat, I choose for brand new restaurants. In Vancouver where there are already thousands of restaurants and yet more and more are open still. For example there is this new Korean restaurant open at Lansdowne Mall. I went to try their food when they are only open for 3 days. The food is pretty good, the decor is so far the best for Korean restaurants in Vancouver, but the service is still not there yet. Maybe because they are still so new so the waitresses are not familiar enough with their job yet. Some of the food also not available yet at that time, I am not sure about it now, maybe they do already. Price wise, slightly more expensive than other Korean Restaurants.














Lansdowne Centre
5300 No.3 Road
Richmond BC V6X 2X9
Tel: 604-270-1344






The rice cake soup






The Beef ribs BBQ ( Bul Kal Bi )







The side dishes, I think they have the best tasting Kim Chi.





Then yesterday, we went to try this award winning sushi chefs from Japan restaurant at Aberdeen Centre. The restaurant name is Umai Sushikan, located inside the mall at Unit 2790.
I read about the chefs from newspaper mentioning that he won several awards back in Japan. In Vancouver, we probably has the cheapest salmon since we are located in the region where salmon is so plentiful. We have tons of Japanese restaurant in here but most of them are not even own by Japanese. Mostly by Chinese or Koreans. So I think the taste is not authentic enough. Sure all of the restaurant always serve the same type of sushi or sashimi, so if you just looking for the USUAL stuff, you can always get pretty decent Japanese food from any restaurant here, but I am looking for something that is unusual, the more authentic one. That's why I went to eat in this restaurant.

By a glance at the menu, you can already see that there are many items that you won't find in other Japanese restaurants. This restaurant serve more KOBE beef. If you never heard about KOBE beef, it is the absolute best. I heard a lot about how Japanese manage to make such masterpiece, I heard they feed the cows with milk, and they even massage the cow! I also heard that now, Kobe is not the only town that can produce this kind of excellency, other town can do it too. But the KOBE name is already become the standard.

Because we kind of in a hurry to go home ( It's already pass La La bedtime! ), so we order the June Special, $85 for 2, we get 4 slices of salmon sashimi, their 4 giant , jeez... I don't remember the name, rice sushi, very colorfull and taste really good. Don't let the picture fool you, each of this sushi is as big as the small plate that they always give you in sushi restaurant. My son can only eat one and he is already full! Then Kobe salad with orange dressing. Then Lobster and vegetable tempura with a very unique ( at least to me ) green tea salt on the side for people who likes their tempura more salty. Udon ( very tasty ). Chef's choice sushi, very very good, fresh and unique. I like the ide of placing a lemon jelly on top of the scallop. Even their green tea is better than other restaurant. Other restaurant usually serve green tea that doesn't even taste like green tea anymore. This restaurant serve a real green tea both in color and taste.















Aberdeen Centre

4151 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC



























This sushi is not only taste really good but they look so beautiful! Like a jewelry box.






Look at the top left corner, you see the green tea salt that I mention earlier. Then on the bottom right corner, you can see the fan shape tempura, it was made with noodle! I think it's pretty, KK sure loves their crunch!









Kobe Salad with Orange dressing.








It's been a long time since I eat sushi this fresh. The Tuna is absolutely melting in your mouth with so much marble ( fat ). Then you see the lemon jelly on top of the scallops. All of them are pure endulgence.




















This picture is taken from their own website, it's their $12 lunch bento box I guess.

2 Days - Feast

I have been subscribing Martha Stewart Living magazine for well over 5 years I think and if you also subscribe or buy it once in a while, you know that inside the magazine there is special section for simple dinner menu that you can cook within an hour. They always looks so perfect, delicious, and healthy. For some reason I have never try the recipes well until yesterday. And it's because it brought a certain happy memory.



When I still went to University, I had a friend from Jakarta. One day he asked me if I want to accompany him to go to Dallas to see his cousin. In Dallas, his cousin whose family business is in chain Japanese restaurants in Jakarta and grocery stores too treat us for lunch at a tiny shack. The restaurant wall was build with bare woods with no paint and everything looked genuinely rustic. First he told us to sit first. The bench and the table looked so old and so rustic, basically they are just old wood planks nail together. Then the cousin order this and that for us. Soon, the waiter bring a huge plate of crawfish and other seafood to our table then he dump them on our table that has been covered with newspapers and we just start to dig in. This is a new experience for me because at that time I just arrived in the US for less than a year. I have never seen a crawfish before, it looks like a cross between a shrimp and a lobster or something. The meat part is so small compare to the head, but the meat is very sweet. Then the way they cook it is so different too, I think they just boil everything! I have never find this type of cooking anywhere else.





On the way home from Dallas I had an allergy reaction to what I eat, so I ended up with my body full of rashes that itch like crazy! For some reason I blocked this from my memory and only the good part still left in my brain!

So when I saw this recipe I was so happy that I finally I can make it on my own. So in the morning, I went to my usual Asian grocery store , Yaohan, to buy everything fresh. Since I don't want to have another food allergy, I insist to buy everything super fresh. If they are not swimming and breathing when I pick them, I won't buy them.

First I choose the shrimps. Then I pick the clams. Then it took me a long time to pick the blue crabs because they are so feisty!

To make this dish you need to have Old Bay Seasoning.



The recipe from Martha Stewart Living magazine is for shrimp boil but actually you can put almost anything in the boiling liquid, like Kielbasa sausages, lobster, clams, crabs, corn, potatoes ( white or red ). On Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, she describe that the way you layering the ingredients is important so that they can be done at the same time. The recipe's name is Kitchen Clambake.


So how does it taste? Is it close to the crawfish that I ate in Dallas? The answer is... Not even close! It was pretty bad that I throw the left over straight to the trash can! I can't even say why it taste awful. That's why I did not even bother to write the recipe here.


The next day I tried different recipe. I look up at my Practical Japanese Cooking by Shizuo Tsuji for a Sukiyaki recipe.







Again, I specifically look for Sukiyaki because I have a fond memory on eating it for the first time with my parents when we traveled to Rockies Mountains together. As a gift from my parents to me for my graduation from University, they got us a deluxe tour package to Rockies Mountain. I think it cost about $ 7500 a person for 10 days trip that doesn't even include any airplane tickets! What we got though is 5 stars hotels every day, for example, if you go to Banff, you will see that there is only one hotel that get the best view and that is the Banff Spring Hotel. One night may cost around $ 500 at that time. And on this tour package everyday we get a $ 45 allowance per person for our dinner which means we can go to eat in any of the hotel's restaurants and spend 45 dollars. If we spend more than that then we need to pay the extra ourselves. Our first night there, I tried to make a reservation for our dinner with the service desk . Originally my first choice was a German Restaurant but when they told me that because the hotel is so large, it takes 15 minutes for me to walk there and most likely I will get lost on the way so there is a big possibility that it would take more than 30 minutes for me to get there! This hotel has more than 15 Restaurants in it. So at the end we chose the Japanese restaurant called Samurai Sushi Bar and Restaurant. Since I never ate Sukiyaki before I guess this is the best time to try it. I was so surprise that it really taste so good! Since then I have been ordering Sukiyaki in many many many Japanese restaurant but none of them ever come close to my first Sukiyaki. I love it so much that on another chance when I went back to that hotel again for a visit with my husband and his friends, I want to eat in that restaurant again but I could not find it! This hotel is so monstrously too big. We ended up eating a great Canadian food.

So anyway, this recipe is a pretty good immitation to my first Sukiyaki in Banff, just remember that the quality of the meat really play an important part on to make this recipe from good to great.

SUKIYAKI

Serve 4

2 lbs well-marbled sirloin beef
1 cake konnyaku, about 1/2 lb
1/2 block regular tofu, about 5 oz ( 150gr )
12 scallions
4 oz (120gr) watercress
8 fresh shiitake mushrooms, washed and stems removed or 8 fresh brown mushrooms, washed and trimmed
2 oz (60gr) beef suet -- I use oil instead of beef suet
4 eggs

SAUCE

1 cup dark soy sauce -- I use regular
1 cup mirin
1/2 cup water
7 Tbs sugar
1/4 cup sake

Slice the beef thinly as possible or have your butcher cut it for Sukiyaki.

Combine all the SAUCE ingredients and bring to a boil over high heat. Cool.

If you use the konnyaku, cut the konnyaku into 1/2 x 1/2 x 5-cm strips. Rub with salt, boil for 5 minutes, and drain well. I use konnyaku noodles instead so that I don't have to cut them anymore.

Prep everything like I do in the pictures.

Heat a cast iron skillet to high heat and melt the beef suet, or like me, I use oil. Then add some of the beef to the pot and saute it. When the beef is almost cooked through, pour in the suace to the 1 cm level and add some of the konnyaku, tofu, and vegetalbes. Let teh food simmer, adjujsting heat if necessary.

Break the raw eggs into individual serving bowls and beat lightly.

When the food is cooked through, each diner selects his or her own pieces from the skillet. Dip into the egg.

Replace the ingredients and sauce as they are depleted.

Finally I have a very satisfactory dinner after yesterday disaster dinner ...

More Links for Pregnancy and Confinement Recipes

Well..well..well... never thought that my postings on pregnancy and confinement recipes get the most responds.

So I thought I would like to add more information for you who needs these types of recipes.

Just for you know that the book that I show here is just one from many out there so don't limit yourself on buying the exact one with mine.

For more free pregnancy and confinement recipes you can go to:

Singapore's pregnancy recipes website
Singapore Confinement Recipes Website
Moms In Mind
Parenting Joy
Natal Essentials
Pregnancy Recovery
Southern Angel's


If I happen to find more usefull links, I am going to keep adding them in this post.

Feeding Toddlers

Many times when I am around other parents I hear this complain a lot that their children do not eat enough vegetables or fruits, or they eat too much junk food snacks like potato chips, coke.

I don't claim that my son's eating habit is perfect. I allow him to eat candies and chocolates at home as long as he brush his teeth after that. But I do not have problem with him eating vegetables and fruits.

In my opinion, parents who have problem with their children is because they introduce those junk food too soon before the good eating habit is well establish yet, and because at home, they have too many bad choices to choose.


Pic: While playing he went and grab the asparagus from the dining table and put it in his mouth! He is 2 yrs old in this photo.

The choices on the dining table should be between carrot, mango, or broccoli. Yes, it seems that I gave my son choices to choose when in fact, I don't!

What do you think he will choose if the choices are between carrot, potato chips, and pizza? And the drink of choices is pops or sugary juice? Instead at home, I insist he drinks milk. He only drink juice on his lunch break at school because I gave him the juice box.

For his fruits daily requirement, I would rather he eats the fruit with all their complete vitamins still there and their healthy fiber than if he drinks it in straw!

It's all about choices we gave them....

Beside giving him false choices to choose, I also telling him all about the health benefit he can get by eating those food that I prepare for him. For example, if he eat carrot , he will have healthy eye sight. When he eat broccoli, he couldn't get cancer which is very very bad. When he choose fish, he will be smarter. When he choose spinach, he will have enough blood which is like the transportation for all the nutrients to reach every part of his body. So while he is eating healthy, he also feels good about himself because he knows that he is doing something good to his body.

I really do not like it when my mom came and she likes to pile up all those unhealthy snacks on my dining table. It's so easy for a child to be bad and it's so hard to train them to be good. It's also an annoying thing that I have to be the bad guy. It's just not fair for me who has been trying so hard since Kai Kai was old enough to eat to make him loves healthy food. Luckily my father help a little so now when my mom is here, there are less unhealthy snacks on my table. Just a few ....

A dining table should be clean of any snacks. The only thing allow to be there should be the well-prepared healthy food only. You can have bad snacks at home, just be sure to put them behind the locks!

In my experience, after school is the best time to make him eat healthy food because he is always at the hungriest around 4 to 5 o'clock. Too early for dinner, yet way too late for lunch. For breakfast, I choose cereal, oatmeal, yogurt ( remember my new best friend, the yogurt maker? ), eggs, pancakes and waffle ( when I have time ). And usually my son doesn't feel too hungry around lunch time. So he usually a little bit more picky. But after school, he usually comes home famish because when the school end, he always play hard with his classmates at the school playground until he sweat a lot and he always comes home looking for food on the dining table.

So I make sure that before I left to pick him up from school, there will be some sort of healthy snacks ready for him to eat. If not, always offer him cereal first. When he is this hungry, he really doesn't care on what he eats, he just shove everything into his mouth so even though maybe at lunch or dinner he didn't get enough vegetables or fruits in his body, this is the time to balance things out! So I make sure that I won't miss this opportunity.

The easiest is to precut all the fruits and just lay them on the plate at dining table.

Then you can make all sort of sandwich off course. Peanut butter is not a bad thing. The jam maybe because of all the sugar content in it.

In my fridge, there is always a big bottle of milk that my son can grab himself when ever he is thirsty, and I make sure that it always full.

Another way is making vegetables dip. Clean, and cut the vegetables into smaller and easy to hold pieces. Then you make the dip.

His favorite dip is this blue cheese Dip and they are pretty easy to make and the taste is way more superior than if you opt to buy from the store. But again, the point is making them eat more vegetables so if you think making the dip is too troublesome then by all means go buy it!

BLUE CHEESE DIP

1 1/2 cups crumbled gorgonzola or other blue cheese ( I like milder taste, smelling it can give you a hint on how strong the flavor is going to be )
1 cup good mayonnaise
3/4 cup sour cream ( you can use yogurt )
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground black pepper

Place the blue cheese, mayo, sour cream, Worcestershire, salt and pepper in the bowl of food processor fitted with a steel blade and process it until smooth.

From my experience, kids loves sweeter vegetables such as tomatoes, carrots, and red bell paper. But they can like others too like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, celery, beets , mushrooms, and Belgium Endive as well. Just let them try it first.

To make Kai Kai likes to try new thing, I like to take him to the grocery store and let him choose what he likes to eat. 8 out of 10, he always pick vegetables and fruits instead of new snack or candies. Every time I went to my Asian grocery store, he always ran and grab a lotus root.

Beside fresh vegetable with the blue cheese dip, I am going to give you other kids friendly recipes.

WHITE BEAN AND BACON DIP WITH ROSEMARY PITA CHIPS

The homemade rosemary-flecked chips are a great complement to the garlicky dip, but store-bought pitas or bagel chips are a fine stand-in.

Chips:
1/2 tsp dried crushed rosemary
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp black pepper
3 (6-inch) pitas, each cut into 8 wedges
Cooking spray or you can use a brush and oil.

Dip:
2 bacon slices, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 ( 19-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp hot sauce
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp paprika

Preheat oven to 350F.

To prepare Chips, combine first 4 ingredients. Arrange pita wedgesin a single layer on a baking sheet. Lighty coat pita wedges with cooking spray; sprinkle evenly with rosemary mixture. Lightly recoat pita wedges with cooking spray. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes or until golden.

To prepare dip, cook bacon in a small saucepan over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan with a slotted spoon; set aside. Add garlic to drippings in pan; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add broth and beans; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes.

Combine bean mixture, onions, and remaining ingredients in a food processor, and process until smooth. Spoon mixture into a bowl; stir in 1 Tbs reserved bacon. Sprinkle Dip with remaining bacon just before serving. Serve with pita chips.

There are tons of recipe out there that can teach you on how to make dips. Children loves dips, you can even cut the vegetables with cookie cutter into cute shapes, like flower shape carrot for example.

Another great idea is making a smoothie for them.

Another one again is serving them with different cheeses.

Boil or steam Soy beans for no more than 5 minutes. They should not be mushy. Then sprinkle them with salt. For extra flavoring you can boil star anise first for 10 minutes or so to infuse the liquid then you cook the soy beans with that liquid. Children usually loves to peel the skin of the soy beans.

Another thing as well, is when I make let's say chicken soup. I really add a lot of vegetables in my soup, because for every bite that Kai Kai put in his mouth. I want it to be full with nutrients. I think rice is just a filler, something to make you full without much nutrient to offer. This way works very well if you have 2 children with different age, the older one can eat the soup like we do, and for the smaller one, you can puree the soup until smooth. That's why adding lots of vegetables in the soup can help to get the right consistency for a puree soup.

This is a good recipe for soup for children that you can puree as well:

RICE AND VEGETABLE SOUP

1 Tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped finely
1 trimmed celery stick, chopped finely
1 medium carrot, chopped coarsely
1 L stock ( chicken or vegetable stock is fine )
2 (400gr) cans tomatoes
420g can four-bean mix, rinsed and drained ( any white beans should do as well )
1/2 cup (100gr) long-grain white rice
1/2 tsp sugar
2 Tbs finely chopped fresh basil leaves
1/3 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in large pan; cook onion, celery and carrot, stirring, until onion is soft. Add stock, undrained crushed tomatoes, beans, rice and sugar. Bring to boil; simmer; uncovered, about 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Serve soup sprinkled with basil and cheese.

This recipe is great for freezing as well.

For baby: Puree to the desired consistency.

Pasta is also a great help for mom. Since pasta comes in so many colors and so many shapes it's so easy to feed them to children.


Mixing tofu with ground meat, salt, pepper, egg white, garlic and onion then boil them and serve it with chopped vegetables is also great. Look at Kai Kai when he was almost 2 yrs old eating this tofu balls by himself.

Take your kids next time you go grocery shopping, take them to the fruits and vegetables section and asked them what they like to eat.

At home, asked them if they like to help you prepare the meal. The more involve they are in making their own meal, the bigger the chances they will eat their creation.

Let them play with their food a little. Children learn through play. Eating is part of that too.

When they said they are full. Respect that! They need to learn how hungry and full is like. So they know when to eat and when to stop.

Don't force feed the children just because they might not be hungry yet. Don't worry, trust your kids, I have never heard children literarily kill themselves through starvation. Their survival instinct is bigger than that.

Food should be fun. Not punishment. Candies or dessert shouldn't be a reward too.

Heck... If Kai Kai said for breakfast he wants chocolate chips cookies, I let him have it once in a while. I found that the more I trust him, the more he made a better judgment himself base on his knowledge of eating healthy food that will make him grow stronger. The next day, he asked for his oatmeal back again.


Pic: He grab the Belgium Endive salad from the dining table that I made for myself since I thought he won't like the bitter taste of it. He surprise me again with his broad taste. He likes the bitterness of it.

Cooking With The Most Expensive Spice In The World - Saffron!

The most precious and most expensive spice in the world: Saffron.
The Saffron filaments, or threads, are actually the dried stigmas of the saffron flower, "Crocus Sativus Linneaus". Each flower contains only three stigmas. These threads must be picked from each flower by hand, and more than 75,000 of these flowers are needed to produce just one pound of Saffron filaments, making it the world?s most precious spice.
But, because of saffron's strong coloring power and intense flavor, it can be used sparingly. Saffron is used both for its bright orange-yellow color and for its strong, intense flavor and aroma.

Crocus Sativus Linneaus contains crocin, the source of its strong coloring property, bitter-crocin, which offers the distinctive aroma and taste and essential oils which are responsible for its therapeutic properties.
Saffron is available both in filaments and powder, though the long, deep red filaments are usually preferable to the powder as the latter can be easily adulterated.
Today, the greatest saffron producing countries are Greece, Spain, Turkey, Iran, India, and Morocco.
The largest saffron importers are Germany, Italy, U.S.A., Switzerland, U.K., and France.

Okay... now...after you read that information about Saffron, you can appreciate it more on why Saffron is so expensive. I bought Saffron from my grocery store, it comes in a bottle and inside the bottle there is an paper envelop containing 1 tsp of saffron threads for the price of CAN $ 13.



Another great place to buy it is from Ebay. I bought my vanilla beans also from Ebay, direct from Tahiti. A lot cheaper than if you buy from your grocery.

Here is the background story on why I want to try cooking with saffron. Here at my home, FoodTV Network is always on my TV as long as Richard is still at work and Kai Kai is at his school. I think in the past 2 years or so I notice that I mention about a Spanish dish called Paella more and more and to cook Paella, you need saffron because saffron is what makes this dish special. The color and the flavour of saffron.

Since saffron is so expensive, I thought I want to eat Paella at a restaurant first so I know approximately what Paella should taste like. I did this couple months ago actually and I think I like Paella even though I still couldn't taste what so special about saffron except it makes the rice looks yellow but that easily can be duplicate by using turmeric. In fact, some recipe calls for turmeric as a replacement of saffron. True, the color is the same, but they said the flavour is different. Because of that I want to use saffron so I can get the whole thing right first.

To make sure that I get it right. I insist on buying everything fresh. I went shopping early in the morning so I can get the live shrimps, live clams, live mussels and the white wine.



Paella

From America's Test Kitchen

This recipe is for making paella in a Dutch oven (the Dutch oven should be 11 to 12 inches in diameter with at least a 6-quart capacity). With minor modifications, it can also be made in a paella pan (see instructions below). Dry-cured Spanish chorizo is the sausage of choice for paella, but fresh chorizo or linguiça is an acceptable substitute. Soccarat, a layer of crusty browned rice that forms on the bottom of the pan, is a traditional part of paella. In our version, soccarat does not develop because most of the cooking is done in the oven. We have provided instructions to develop soccarat in step 5; if you prefer, skip this step and go directly from step 4 to 6.

Serves 6
1 pound extra-large shrimp (21/25), peeled and deveined
Table salt and ground black pepper
olive oil
8-9 medium cloves garlic , minced or pressed through garlic press (about 2 tablespoons)
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs , each thigh trimmed of excess fat and halved crosswise
1 red bell pepper , seeded and cut pole to pole into 1/2-inch-wide strips
8 ounces Spanish chorizo , sliced 1/2 inch thick on the bias (see note)
1 medium onion , chopped fine (about 1 cup)
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes , drained, minced, and drained again
2 cups Valencia rice or Arborio ( I also read somewhere that you can substitute it with Japanese sushi rice )
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads , crumbled
1 bay leaf
1 dozen mussels , scrubbed and debearded
1/2 cup frozen green peas , thawed
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
1 lemon , cut into wedges, for serving


1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Toss shrimp, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, 1 tablespoon oil, and 1 teaspoon garlic in medium bowl; cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed. Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper; set aside.

2. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering but not smoking. Add peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until skin begins to blister and turn spotty black, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer peppers to small plate and set aside.

3. Add 1 teaspoon oil to now-empty Dutch oven; heat oil until shimmering but not smoking. Add chicken pieces in single layer; cook, without moving pieces, until browned, about 3 minutes. Turn pieces and brown on second side, about 3 minutes longer; transfer chicken to medium bowl. Reduce heat to medium and add chorizo to pot; cook, stirring frequently, until deeply browned and fat begins to render, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer chorizo to bowl with chicken and set aside.

4. Add enough oil to fat in Dutch oven to equal 2 tablespoons; heat over medium heat until shimmering but not smoking. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until softened, about 3 minutes; stir in remaining garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes; cook until mixture begins to darken and thicken slightly, about 3 minutes. Stir in rice and cook until grains are well coated with tomato mixture, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in chicken broth, wine, saffron, bay, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Return chicken and chorizo to pot, increase heat to medium-high and bring to boil, uncovered, stirring occasionally. Cover pot and transfer to oven; cook until rice absorbs almost all liquid, about 15 minutes. Remove pot from oven (close oven door to retain heat). Uncover pot; scatter shrimp over rice, insert mussels hinged side down into rice (so they stand upright), arrange bell pepper strips in pinwheel pattern, and scatter peas over top. Cover and return to oven; cook until shrimp are opaque and mussels have opened, 10 to 12 minutes.

5. Optional: If soccarat (see note) is desired, set Dutch oven, uncovered, over medium-high heat about 5 minutes, rotating pot 180 degrees after about 2 minutes for even browning.

6. Let paella stand, covered, about 5 minutes. Discard any mussels that have not opened and bay leaf, if it can be easily removed. Sprinkle with parsley and serve, passing lemon wedges separately.

7. If You're Using a Paella Pan
A paella pan makes for an attractive and impressive presentation. Use one that is 14 to 15 inches in diameter. A 14-inch ovensafe skillet will work as well, but do not attempt to use anything smaller because the contents will simply not fit. Follow the recipe for Paella, increasing the chicken broth to 3 1/4 cups and the wine to 1/2 cup. Before placing the pan in the oven, cover it tightly with foil. For soccarat, cook the paella, uncovered, over medium-high heat for about 3 minutes, rotating the pan 180 degrees after about 1 1/2 minutes for even browning.

STEP BY STEP: Deveining Shrimp



1. Hold the shelled shrimp between thumb and forefinger and cut down the length of its back, about 1/8 to 1/4 inch deep, with a sharp paring knife.



2. If the shrimp has a vein, it will be exposed and can be pulled out easily.




STEP BY STEP: Searching for Soccaret

Soccarat is the toasty, browned portion of rice that forms along the bottom of the pan. It is the hallmark of authentic paella. To create this crusty bottom layer of rice, return the Dutch oven to the stovetop for five minutes once the paella has finished baking.

STEP BY STEP: How Much Time is Enough for Good Paella?


30 MINUTES: This boxed paella, with its own can of seafood, isn't worth the minimal bother.








TWO HOURS: Our recipe works in a pan you already own and relies on a reasonable shopping list.






FOUR HOURS: This ultimate recipe requires a paella pan and includes nine kinds of meat and seafood.






Above: Different sizes of Paella pans.

NOTE:


It's a good idea to get all the ingredients ready before you start cooking because between cooking one ingredient to another, it only takes few minutes so you don't have much time to do anything else beside cooking one ingredient after another.

The Story About 2 Roast Chickens

Roast chicken... Such an easy, simple, yet versatile food. Sure, there are many recipes to cook roast chicken, but sometimes, the simplest is the best.

Here, I am going to guide you on 2 days roast chicken extravaganza , my way off course.

DAY 1

Made the 2 or 3 roast chicken depending on how many family members you have. Just double or triple this recipe below. You can even substitute this recipe with chicken
breast or legs.

Roast Chicken

1 whole chicken
3 Tbs oil / melted butter
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 medium onion, cut into 4 pieces.
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/2 lemon
sprig of Thyme, rosemary ( optional )

Preheat the oven to 350F.

After you clean the chicken then pat it dry with paper towels, just drizzle the oil and sprinkle salt and pepper all over the chicken, inside and out. Then you massage it all over the chicken, make sure you don't miss a spot. Squirt some of the lemon juice inside the chicken then put all the garlic, onion, lemon, and if you want to use herbs go ahead put all of them inside the chicken cavity. Place the chicken on a roasting pan breast side up.

Put the chicken in the oven, roast it for about 50-60 minutes, you can tell if your chicken is done or not from the clear juice that run out. If it's still red, keep it longer.

For extra lesson on how to roast chicken you can go to this site



Above: Keep the vegetables in big chunks so they can keep their shape when you roast them.




With this chicken, you can have a nice roast chicken dinner. Now all you need to think about is the side dish. If you want to keep it simple, together at the same time you can also make roasted potatoes, roasted carrots, and other firm root vegetables. You can even dump all these veggies in the same roasting pan with the chicken, but you need to think that the more stuff in the roasting pan, the less crisp the chicken's skin will be. Before you dump the veggies in the pan, you need to dress it with oil, salt and pepper just like the chicken. You can add minced garlic with the vegetables too. The varieties are endless ...



Above: Parisian Potatoes, I bought it in a bag already peeled and shaped into balls.



Above: roasted beets, come raw in a convenient bag.

After you roast the chickens until they are done, transfer 1 to a large plate. Place all the roasted vegetables around the chicken and present them like this. I would suggest that first you cut off the thighs, legs, and wings first. Then you sliced the breast thinly and serve ( You will find why I suggest you to do this ). Don't toss the stuff that stuck on your roasting pan just yet. This is THE GOOD STUFF! This is where you should go and buy yourself a decent roasting pan. So that after you take it out from the oven, you can place it on your cooktop and heat it up like a normal pan. To that bits and fat in the roasting pan, add about 2 - 3 Tbs of flour ( Depend on how many chickens that you roast ) then on low heat you cook the flour first for about 2 - 3 minutes. Then you can add 1/4 cup of white wine to the pan, or you can use chicken stock or even water. Stir until they are combine. This is the gravy. Adjust the seasoning to your taste too. This can be use for the sauce for the chicken or you can pour it on top of your mashed potatoes.



What I like to do with this, I pour out the gravy from the pan, then I take out the onions and the garlic from the chicken's cavity. Then I use an immersion blender to blend all of that into a smooth gravy. Tastier this way. Nothing to waste too except the lemon and the herbs stalks... If you do this, you can use less flour since the onion, and the garlic will be the thickener agents.

Here is a good recipe from Barefoot Contessa's Book on roasting vegetables:

Roasted Winter Vegetables

1 lb carrots, peeled
1 lb parsnips, peeled
1 large sweet potato, peeled
1 small butternut squash ( about 2 pounds ), peeled and seeded
3 Tbs good olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 Tbs chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1. Preheat oven to 425° F. Cut the carrots, parsnips, sweet potato, and butternut squash in 1- to 1 1/2-inch cubes. All vegetables will shrink while baking, so don't cut them too small.

2. Place all the cut vegetables in a single layer on 2 sheet pans. Drizzle them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toss well. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until all the vegetables are tender, turning once with a metal spatula.

3. Sprinkle with parsley, season to taste, and serve hot

NOTE: Did you know that with the left offers roasted vegetables you can make Roasted vegetables Soup? Use either blender or immersion blender to puree the vegetables then thin it out with more chicken stock. Add salt and pepper according to your taste.To make the chicken stock, keep reading ...

So for today, here is your dinner. A simple, satisfying roast chicken with maybe roasted potatoes, and roasted vegetables, or you can make a simple steamed green beans to go with it, a mash potatoes perhaps, etc...etc...Then you pour the gravy on top of the chicken or mash potatoes, if not keep it in your freezer in case you need gravy to boost your other cooking like Southern style biscuits with gravy on top like this recipe.


Now...After you and your family finish devouring the chicken. Remember about my suggestion to cut the chicken's thighs, legs, wings, then slice the breast thinly first and serve? Why? If you have small children like I do, when you sliced the breast into several thin slices, you can serve this to your children because it is easier for them to eat the chicken without the bones, but mainly because this way, right after you take all the meat parts out from the body of the chicken, use the whole carcass for your chicken stock!

Leftovers Roast Chicken Stock

2-3 Roast Chicken bones or with meats still on.
5 cloves garlic, unpeeled, cut in half crosswise
3 carrots
2 medium onion, quartered
2 parsnips, unpeeled, cut in half ( optional )
2 celery stalks with leaves, cut in thirds
2 sprig of parsley
1 sprig of fresh thyme ( or you can use dried too about 1 Tbs )
3 tsp salt
1 tsp whole black peppercorns.

Place everything in a stockpot the simmer it for 4 hrs. Strain the entire contents of the pot throught a colander and discard the solids. Chill the stock overnight. The next day, remove the surface fat. Use immediately or pack in containers and freeze for up to 3 months.

OR you can do like I do, I use my slow cooker and put everything in it and set it for 8 hrs cooking time.

Alright so let me sum it up so far, roast the chicken, roast the vegetables. This way you can make one hell of a dinner, then use what ever left to make gravy, chicken stock, roasted vegetable soup.

Now this is why I asked you to roast several chicken at one time. Those cold chicken is good for EVERYTHING!

So let's say this is day 2.

Here is what you can do with that cold chicken.

Make several salads! Make Chicken noodle soup! Make Chicken Fritata! Place those chicken slices on top of your pasta! Or you can place those sliced chicken breast on your bread with cheese, tomato slices, etc, then make a panini which is a grill sandwich.

Curry Chicken Salad ( from Paula Dean's recipe collection )

1 large roasted chicken, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 (8-ounce) can sliced or chopped water chestnuts, drained
2 cups seedless red grapes, halved
1 (2-ounce) package slivered almonds

Dressing:
1 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1 tablespoon prepared mango chutney
Salt

Gently combine the chicken, celery, water chestnuts, grapes, and almonds in a large glass bowl. Combine the dressing ingredients and mix well. Add to the chicken mixture and stir gently to combine. Season with salt, to taste.

Just go to FoodTV.com, then if you type Chicken salad, on their search engine, this is what you are going to get 73 recipes in total.

Another recipe for chicken salad from Martha Stewart:

ROASTED CHICKEN SALAD

Serves 6
Use a store-bought roasted chicken to save time. To take this salad on a picnic, pack it in an airtight container and keep it fresh in a cooler.


1 cup pecan halves (about 3 ounces), broken in half lengthwise

1 whole roasted chicken (about 3 pounds), skin removed

8 scallions, white and light-green parts only, trimmed and thinly sliced

2 stalks celery, strings removed and thinly sliced

8 ounces lady apples (about 4), or Fuji apples (about 2 medium), cored and sliced into bite-size pieces

5 tablespoons golden or dark raisins

1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh oregano leaves

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Sour Cream Dressing

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Spread pecans in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast in oven until fragrant, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Remove from pan; let cool completely.

2. Pull chicken from the bone; discard bones, and cut meat into 3/4-inch pieces. Transfer to a medium bowl; add scallions, celery, apples, raisins, and oregano. Season with salt and pepper. Add dressing; toss to combine. Chill, covered, until ready to serve.

For making chicken noodle soup, just shred or cut the chickens into 1-inch cubes. Set it aside. With the home made chicken stock that you made previously, add carrots, celery, onion. Cut them into the same size then with 1 Tbs of butter cook them until they are softened. Add 1 tsp of minced garlic. Add 1 bay leaf. As an option you can add fresh herbs like thyme to this soup. Then add few cups of water and let everything simmer for half an hour, then add the chickens and pasta egg noodles and let all of them simmer again for another half an hour. Add salt and black pepper according to your taste. When you want to serve this soup, you can sprinkle some chopped parsley on top.



Chicken Fritata

4 Tbs unsalted butter, divided
1 cup 1/2 inch diced roast chicken
4 Extra large eggs
7 ounces ricotta cheese
1/3 Gruyere cheese, grated.
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/3 chopped fresh basil leaves or green onion
3 Tbs flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350F

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl, then stir in the ricotta, Gruyere, 2 Tbs melted butter, salt, pepper, and basil ( or green onions ). Sprinkle on the flour, and baking powder. Set aside.

Melt 2 Tbs of butter in a medium size pan ( I think mine is 8-inches ) over medium low heat. Make sure your pan is oven-proof. Add the chicken then pour the eggs mixture to the pan.

Place it in the middle of the oven. Bake the fritata until it is browned and puffed, about 40 minutes. It will be rounded and firm in the middle and a knife inserted in the fritata should come out clean. Serve hot.



Another grea recipe for soup is this:

Chicken Dumpling Soup

Soup:
2 to 3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 large onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
1/2 stalk celery, diced
Meat from 1 chicken, cooked and shredded
4 to 6 cups chicken broth
1 cup fresh cut green beans
1 cup pearl barley
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper

Dumplings:
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cupall-purpose flour
3 eggs

Soup:
In a small amount of cooking oil sweat the onion, carrots and celery. Add chicken, broth, green beans, barley, celery salt, parsley and bay leaves. Simmer until the barley is tender, about 30 minutes.

Make dumplings:
Bring the milk and butter to a boil, add salt and nutmeg. Remove from heat and immediately add flour stirring until dough leaves the sides of the pan. Incorporate the eggs, 1 at a time, forming a sticky dough.

Season the soup, to taste, with salt and pepper. Add spoon sized balls of dumpling dough and simmer until dumplings rise. I use ice cream scooper to make the dumpling

.



Above and Below: The pictures of this dumpling soup is not the same with the recipe.
I use different recipe.



Okay... by now I hope I can give you ideas that making Roast Chicken is so easy yet... with this one recipe, you can create so many possibilities and there is almost nothing to waste when you finish with it!

My Breakfast , My Lunch, & My Dinner Today

I think today I had a pretty decent food. Variety and healthy wise. Let me start. As you know on my previous entry that now I have a yogurt machine and so far I have been good with using it and since I own this machine I eat yogurt every other day if not every day which is good for my health since most Asian cuisine doesn't have enough calcium in it. Plus, I am not that much of a milk drinker at home, not like Kai Kai that drink milk all the time.

So this morning when I was preparing our breakfast. Well...see here... this is what happen if I had enough sleep, I just felt so creative in the morning. You really don't want to see me when I do not have enough sleep the night before...mean...mean...mean...

When I saw the honeydew melon I bought 2 days ago and it smells so heavenly. I just had this idea of making fruit breakfast. First I grab my yogurt, then milk, then my strawberry compote that usually I ate together with my yogurt as the sweeter, then I grab honey too. With all of this ingredients, I made strawberry smoothie with my blender. Then I use my melon baler to carve the honeydew melon into these tiny balls. Place the melon balls inside a glass, then pour the smoothie and it's done! I gave one to my son. Then for another alternative, I just wrap my prosciutto ham around my melon. This is a pretty traditional Italian starter actually. The sweetness of the honeydew melon just match beautifully with the saltiness of the prosciutto.



For our lunch, I just cooked the home-made frozen dumplings. Every once in a while, Richard and me made dumplings assembly line style. I made the filling first, then we lay out all the dumpling skins all over the kitchen's table. Then I walk around carrying this big bowl full with the filling and a small ice cream scooper that will produce exact same 1-inch meat ball. While I do this, Richard will start closing the skin over the filling using water to seal it. Then he place it on a baking tray that I already sprinkle generously with flour so the dumplings won't stick to each other. Once I am finish with the filling, I help Richard to close the dumpling skins. This way, we can finish making a lot dumpling in a short time. Then I place the baking trays in the freezer. When they are already frozen solid, I place them in ziplock plastic bags and store them in the freezer again.

To season the filling I never use recipe but basically this is how I made it:

Dumpling / Gyoza

2 packs or more of dumpling skins
1 1/2 lb lean/regular ground pork
1/2 lb ground fresh bacon/pork side ribs ( either I ground it myself or just use my food processor )
1 cup sliced green onion
2 cups shredded cabbage
1 Tbs minced ginger
1 Tbs minced garlic
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1 Tbs sesame oil
2 Tbs rice wine
2 Tbs soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
3 Tbs water or stock
1 tsp MSG ( optional )

For the Dipping sauce:
3 Tbs light soy sauce
1 Tbs black/red vinegar
1 Tbs sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbs water
1 tsp finely shredded ginger ( optional )

On how to cook the dumpling, you can use this cute and useful video clip to guide you through. If you follow this video clip, your dumpling won't stick to each other and when you tried to separate them, you won't tear their skins from each other.



My way of cooking dumpling. First of all I use a hot non-stick pan. Then pour enough oil, swirl it around. Then place the dumpling, fried them first with medium heat. Turn it left and right, shake the pan a little so that the oil will coat the dumpling skins. Once you are satisfied with the color of the dumpling which will turn brownish and you are sure that they are all coated lightly in oil, then I pour hot water to the pan ( Not a good idea to pour cold water into a hot pan, it can damage your non-stick pan, you can read the manual yourself to confirm this ). Close the pan with the lid. Once you saw that your dumpling are fully cooked ( if not, add water as needed ), shake the pan again to loosen the dumpling but you do this with your left hand and your right hand holding the lid close tightly because the oil may splattered on your hand while you shake the pan. It is a good idea to shake the pans once in a while, not just once, just do it carefully so the water will not splattered on you! When there is no water left, I just dump them on my plate, I don't have any problem with sticky dumpling like the one in that video clip.



Above: While the dumpling are steaming away, I check the once in a while and shake the pan a little with closed lid.



Above: Look... no sticking to each other's skin!



Above: Perfectly cooked dumpling or gyoza if you want.

Now, let's talk about dinner ...

Again, in a quest of trying everything that I haven't tried before, I saw these beautifully fresh English peas at nearby farmer market. When I need to cook with peas, I usually use frozen peas. They are sweet and they are so convenient to use. But I really want to try eat them fresh this time. Since Kai Kai, being a good boy that he is, always begs to help me cooking, so I gave him the job of shelling the peas. I have never seen such an enthusiastic boy shelling a big bowl of English peas!



Above: Look, they are so big and plump!





I think I plan to use a little of these peas for my pasta tonight and use everything else for tomorrow soup.

First I boil the pasta in salted water until they are al-dente ( don't be scared to use a lot of salt in the water ). While it's boiling away, I cut the pancetta into tiny cubes and fried them in extra-virgin olive oil. Then add 4 cloves of garlic, minced. Add 1 tsp of hot pepper flakes in it for extra heat. Then about 1 minute before I drain my pasta, I dump the peas into the pasta. Then I drain all of them together and dump them on my sauce pan. Add some of the boiling pasta water to the sauce pan. Sprinkle some fresh minced parsley in it. When you serve this pasta, sprinkle some grated Parmesan cheese on top and a little freshly cracked black pepper according to taste and this dish is done. About adding more salt, well.. if you already use a well salted water when you boil the pasta, I don't think you will need to sprinkle more salt on this dish. Just make sure that when you put salt in your boiling water, taste it, if it is a little too salty then it is just right.





Cooking simple pasta is really easy and they taste fresh and pure.

For my tomorrow plan to make the chicken soup using my freshly shelled peas, I started making the stock today. I am going to post on how I make my stock together with my next entry.

An Attempt To Be More Ambitious In Baking

My family is weird. They claim that they don't like sweet but they do eat them. Yet... when I bake a cake, usually they are left uneaten for a long time and usually I just dump them at the end in the trash can.... so sad....



Above is my first cheese cake that I bake 2 weeks ago that now is at the bottom of my trash can .... The cheese cake is delicious but I just could not eat it alone. I gained like 8 lbs when first time I found the joy of eating cheese cake back in the University when I just arrived in the States. When I told my husband that I just throw away the most expensive cake I made , this is our conversation:

Me: "Honey, I just throw the most expensive cake I made to the trash can!"
Honey: "But why?"
Me: "It's been in the fridge for 2 weeks!"
Honey: "Why didn't you tell me to eat it?"
Me: "?????"

It's the unpredictability that makes me never try hard to bake a cake. Baking a cake is a science, they are I think the hardest thing to do. Oh my goodness... I have tons of storry on my baking disaster! The agony of watching your beautiful batter just go "flop!", or the cake looks like pizza leaning tower in Italy and many more. I think I am the only person that I know that can not even bake a cake out of a box! I hate to admit this , yes... I am a baking chalenge! Maybe I should just buy that book for dummy thing that can teach me how to bake a cake.

Making a dinner is easy, even when you have an accident, maybe a little too tough, or a little too salty, you can always able to compesate it. But baking a cake is so unforgiving! You made the tiniest mistake and there goes your cake down to the trash can....

This is why I did not want to buy a kitchen scale.... For me, kitchen scale is just for making a cake which I rarely do anyway.

The worst disaster I did with the cake mix was when I made my son's first birthday cake. I had to do it 3 times! Even my mom tried to help out and she made 1. The story goes like this, first I find a kids birthday cake design that should be so easy that even someone like me can make it ( or so I thought! ). It says I should use a box of cake mix, then buy a can of icing, some candies in different shapes, then use my mixing bowl to bake the cake so it has a half a ball shape. Should be easy right? First make the cake. Then when the cake is cool enough, I should nook the icing can in the microwave so they turn to more liquid form so I can pour it over the cake. Proceed with decorating the cake with the candies.

At first I was a littl ambitious, so I made my own cake. It went "Flop!"....

Then I use the cake mix. It went "Flop!"....

Then my mom took over, she made the cake from scratch, It went "Flop!"....

For the last time, I made again with a cake mix, taking a special precaution at reading the instructions ( How hard can it be??? ). Well... it did not went flop, it looks alright so I use this last cake for the birthday cake. Then I heat up the icing as instructed, and pour it over the cake. Easy enough. Then I started decorating the cake with the candies which was a lot of fun.

My original plan was, I want my son to really dig in with the cake. Like jump in there. Make a mess and I am going to take his picture with his face full of icing.


There are 3 problems with making this plan real. First, the icing turn out to be as tough as a plaster. Second, the cake is so dense, I think someone can get a contusion if I throw this cake to their head! Third, that time I did not have enough experience with digital camera so even though the situation at that time was funny, we ( my husband and me ) messed up the camera so badly ( we are both too lazy to read the manual at that time ) that every pictures we took turn dark!!!! The result of this disaster... my son cried his heart out, maybe because he got hurt when he tried to "dig-in" into the cake....

In my previous blog, I mention that before I move to Indonesia, while I am still in Canada, I would like to try things that either I never tried it before or it's been a a while since I tried it before. Last time, for the first time I cook artichoke. This time, I am going to overcome my fear of baking a cake out of the box!

There is also another reason why I bravely want to make a cake today. I just bought several baking tools that I would like to try if they works. The first was a cake slicer. To make a cake level you should cut the rounded top of and when I did this usually, I never can make a level slice so I bought this tool to help me make an even level cake. It does work!





Then I want to try a silicon paper for the bottom of the cake pan to make sure that the cake will release from the pan easily. This silicon paper is already pre-cut precisely so they will fit an 8-inch round cake pan, or a 9-inch cake pan, or even square one. They also come in a much large size for the bottom of your oven so it's easy to clean up when you make a mess down there. Again, they works beautifully as you can see in this picture.





Another "First" thing that I want to try is putting a marzipan layer on my cake. So I bought the marzipan then I put it in the microwave for 30 seconds and then knead them with confectioner sugar on top of my silicon mat so they won't stick to my counter table. They are a lot stickier than what I thought previously. But now that I know, I think it would be a lot easier for me to use them in the future if I want to try again.I love marzipan! The left over of the marzipan, I gave it to Kai Kai, and he had tons of fun with it. He use it like a playdough





Then I open an icing can and start applying it to my cake. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that after I leveled my cake, I made a simple syrup with 2 tbs of brandy in it and brush it over the cake to make it more moist ( I saw this trick on FoodTV ). Then when I stack the cake, I applied a little icing/frosting in between the cake before I cover it up with marzipan.

Now, here is the end result sitting in my fridge .... ta da! I did it this time! YEAH!!!

First time of a few things

This is strange. For someone who has more than she needs in terms of cooking tools, equipments, and appliances, for some reason, I am so lazy to buy a kitchen scale. As you probably know how important it is to have a kitchen scale in your kitchen but so far I can get by with using recipes that only require me to have cups, tsp, and tbs measurements. It is so much easier than measuring ingredients with the scale. Luckily most of US/Canada recipe books only use cups and the tsp or tbs. When I saw a recipe that using grams, I usually avoid it. But I think it is time for me to get down and dirty with the kitchen scale after living for 12 years without it.

How was my kitchen scale performance??? Hey... I just got it, I haven't use it yet, hahaha!!!

Anyway, since in a couple of months I am going to move to my home town back to Indonesia, I thought I better use my last few weeks to eat and try to cook using ingredients that I bet is not available in my home town. So I started with artichoke.



I found a story of someone like me, an artichoke virgin who finally tried it for the first time and she loves it. For me, actually it is not true. The first time I ate an artichoke was when I was about 16 years old and my family went to Spain. When trying local food, they serve us with an artichoke and none of us knew what to do with this weird looking veggie. The tour leader told us that we need to keep peeling until we found the heart of the artichoke then that's it. I thought what a weird thing that is, all the hard work just to get a tiny piece of artichoke's heart that doesn't even taste great anyway, just so-so. I never want to try it again until here in Vancouver, I tried it in a different form. I tried it when they are already marinated in vinegar, garlic, and olive oil then they chopped it and mixed it with pasta salad. They taste pretty darn good that way! Since then I am curious again on trying to eat it just the way I ate it before in Spain but I just can not bring myself to buy it because I am just plain scared that I won't be able to cook it! It looks complicated!

Until I read from Oswego Tea about a girl who cook artichoke for the first time. She got it from epicurious.com I think. Look up at her post titled "Master of My Artichoke".

Anyway, according to that blog, all I need to do is cut the top of the artichoke since the top is full of sharp points. Then, I just boil it in salted water for 45 minutes. When it's done, I have to put them upside down so that all the water will drip down away from the artichoke. Then I made the dip, it consist of 1 cup of mayo, 1/4 cup of finely chopped, 1 tsp or more of lemon juice, black pepper.

My first time to eat artichoke, the tour leader did not tell me that I can eat the petals ( well, not eat them, just scrap it with my front teeth ). This is fun! I eat one petal after another,dip them in my lemon-basil mayo dip. Then I found that the bigger the artichoke, the bigger the heart is. It is very satifying that after you eat the petals one by one then you get the reward a big chunk of artichoke's heart! But in my opinion, I like the journey better than the finish line. Even my son loves it too because he said artichoke taste yummy and he had fun eating it. The only person who only look at the artichoke with such disdain is my hubby.... I think his sense of adventour in eating only travel as far as Asian food. Hmmm... not really, he still refuse to try to eat frog legs, doesn't matter if they are cooked Asian style or French style.

Right now... writing this blog, I am thinking of buying more artichokes tomorrow!


1. First peel the petal one by one and maybe you can see that the petal has my teeth mark on them because I use my front teeth to scrap the flesh out from each petal. Don't forget to dip it!


2. Then you get to the part where you can't eat. So, Just take it off with your fingers grab it and pull. Then you will see the hairy part. This part is also inedible.


3. All you need is either using your fingers or you can use a spoon, just scoop the hairy part out. Under all that hairs is the heart of the artichoke. The really meaty part. I made a mistake of cutting the stem off, actually the stem is a part of the heart and they are delicious too, but as you can see, my artichoke has not stem left because I cut them off.

NOTE: to get the detail of the recipe for the artichoke, you can go here.

Another story ...

Sometime when I am not in the mood to cook without recipe, I will just go to a grocery store and buy what ever the freshest or newest or any thing that interest me. Than 2 days ago when I went to search ingredients for our dinner, I saw 3 different color of cauliflowers. One is green, one is purple, and the other one is bright yellow! How cool is that huh??? I could just imagine it righ there how Kai Kai will react when he saw these colorful veggies on his plate! They are not that expensive also, it's about the same with the plain white cauliflower. So I grab all three of them without knowing what to do with them yet.



At home, I look at my freezer and I found a chicken breast. Alrighty then... without recipe, I just pound them till evenly flat, then I make a mix of flour, salt, and black pepper and I dip the chicken in it. Shake off the extra flour so the chicken only get a thin layer of flour, dip them in beaten eggs, and then dip them in a mixture of bread crumbs, salt, black pepper, Italian herbs, and parmesan cheese ( A lot! ). Then pan fried them in oil and butter. Simple.





For the colorful cauliflower, since I want to show off their color, so I don't use any sauce to cover them. I just steam them first. Then, in a hot pan, I pour olive oil, add 3 garlic thinly sliced, 1 tsp of chili pepper flakes, 4 fillet of anchovies that is marinated in oil. I am trying to keep it very Italian I guess since I use dried Italian herbs on the chicken. Then I sprinkle some salt and that's it.


NOTE: Don't worry, the colors won't mixed this way of cooking.

My son really loves this colorful cauliflower even though I only cooked 2 colors, the purple and the yellow one. When presenting this dish, I don't think I need anything. They are gorgeous just the way they are ...


A child serving size....


Adult serving size....

Coffee Arts

Last Summer, after reading a story about the best place to drink coffee in Vancouver, we went to Caffe Artigiano to try their coffee. Boy were they great! It's not only their coffee that impressed me, it was the design on top of the coffee! I have never seen one in my life, so this is my first time to know that you can put a design on top of your cappucino using the milk froth. Since then I have been looking for a book on how to do it myself. Well... I found one, but it's in Chinese language, so I gave it to Richard. Then I stumble on this story from kungfoodie's website on how to do coffee arts. Now I would like to share it with you all!




See.... it pays to spend hours upon hours searching through great food blogs to find this video clip for you to see!

Egg Drop Tea With Qi Zi

This tea helps to nourishes the throat and the lungs.

Ingredients

(A)
30 gr qi zi
2 eggs, beaten

(B)
15 red dates
10 candied dates ( The picture on this site is not quite right. If you can find candied dates that looks dried instead of sticky glazed than that's the right one. Usually they are sold together with dried red dates and qi zi )
20 gr sweet and bitter almonds
rock sugar to taste

Method:

1. Bring 2 L of water to the boil in pot. Add in (B).
2. When it boils, reduce to low heat and simmer for 1 1/2 hrs. Remove all the ingredients.
3. Add in qi zi and cook for 15 minutes. Stir in eggs and serve hot.

Ginger and Red Date Tea

Although mature ginger is hot in nature, it is nourishing when cooked with red dates and licorice. Women should drink this tea after delivery to expel wind in the body.

Ingredients:

(A)
50 gr mature ginger
15 red dates
5 slices licorice

(B)
brown sugar to taste

Method

1. Clean ginger and cut into slices with the peel on.
2. Bring 2 L of water to the boil in pot. Add in all the (A) ingredients. Bring to the boil.
3. Add in brown sugar. Reduce to low heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Fried RIce With Ginger and Eggs

This nourishing dish could be taken frequently after drlivery. It expels wind in the body.

Ingredients:

(A)
2 cups rice
3 1/2 cups water
2 slices dong gui
* boil together until rice cooked

(B)
1/2 cup grated ginger
150 gr chicken meat
3 eggs
soy sauce to taste
1 Tbs oil
1 Tbs sesame oil

Method

1. Stir fry ginger with oil and sesame oil until fragrant.
2. Add in chicken meat. Stir fry until cooked.
3. Add in eggs. Stir fry until cooked. Add in rice and soy sauce. Stir fry until fragrant and serve hot.

Beef Ball Porridge

This congee could be eaten frequently after delivery. It strengthens the spleen and stomach, refreshes vital energy and strengthens the physique.

Ingredients:

(A)
1 cup rice
2 tsp sesame oil
3 slices mature ginger

(B) Mix well:
250 gr minced beef
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp cornflour

(C)
salt to taste
pepper to taste
shredded ginger and spring onion

Method:

1. Heat 2 tsp of sesame oil in pot. Stir-fry ginger until fragrant.
2. Add in rice and stir fry well. Pour in water and bring to the boil.
3. Reduce to low heat and cook until rice becomes porridge.
4. Shape minced beef into meat balls. Put into porridge and boil until cooked.
5. Add in salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle top with shredded ginger and spring onion.

Stewed Fish Maw

Dried fish maw is rich in protein and vitamins E. It helps to prevent gum bleeding as new mothers lose much calcium while bearing and need replenishment.

Ingredients:

(A)
200 gr dried fish maw
3 slices mature ginger, shredded
2 sprigs spring onion
1 Tbs shao shing wine
1 L hot water

(B)
150 gr lean meat, sliced
3 slices mature ginger, shredded
1 egg, beaten
1 L broth
1 tsp qi zi

(C)
salt, soy suace, and rice wine to taste.

Method:

1. Soak (A) until fish maw expands and turns soft. Rinse and drain.
2. Heat 1 Tbs of sesame oil in wok. Stir fry ginger until fragrant. Fry the beaten egg like an omelette until golden brown. Pour in broth. Bring to the boil.
3. Add in lean meat, fish maw, qi zi, and (C). Bring to the boil and reduce to low heat. Simmer for 45 minutes.

Fish and Papaya Soup

Papaya promotes lactation. This soup is suitable for breast-feeding mothers without sufficient milk secretion.

Ingredients:

(A)
300 gr green papaya
8 red dates
3 slices ginger

(B)
500 gr fresh fish tail
salt to taste

Method:

1. Peel, seed, and cut papaya into pieces.
2. Heat 3 Tbs of oil in pan. Fry fish until golden brown.
3. Put (A) and fish in stewing pot. Pour in 1.5 L of hot water and salt to taste.
4. Put stewing pot into double boiler. Cover and cook for 2 hrs.

NOTE:
1. Again, I think it is easier just to steam this dish inside a heat proof bowl.
2. For myself, I usually use pork feet, peanuts / soy beans, gingers, and green papaya steam for a long time until the pork feets are tender. Pork feet has the gelatinous substance that is really good for promoting lactation. Also for adolescent girls who wants to have bigger boobs...yeah... I just said the "B" word.

Double Boiled Polygonum And Chicken

Polygonum soup helps to strengthen the body, cure insomnia, dizziness and early grey hair.

Ingredients:

(A)
20 gr polygonum
10 gr sliced dong gui
10 dried longan
10 red dates
1 black chicken

(B)
Salt to taste
2 Tbs Shao Shing Wine

Method:

1. Put (A) in stewing pot. Pour in 1/5 L of hot water.
2. Put stewing pot into a double boiler.
3. Cover and double boil for 3 hrs. Stir in (B) and serve hot.

NOTE: I think it is easier to just use a heat proof bowl inside a steamer than follow the book's method.

Beef Soup With Pearl Beans

This soup helps to expel wind in the body. Beef could be replaced by other meat.

Ingredients:

(A)
400 gr beef
150 gr pueraria root
100 gr pearl beans
10 red dates
30 gr dried oysters
3 slices ginger

(B)
Salt to taste
pepper to taste

Method:

1. Bring 2 L of water to the boil in pot. Add in all the (A) ingredients.
2. Bring to the boil and reduce to low heat. Boil for 2 hrs.
3. Season with (B). Serve hot.

Steamed Fish With Dried Lily Buds

Dried lily buds promote urination, stop bleeding, and facilitate lactation.

Ingredients:

(A)
400 gr fish
1 Tbs shredded ginger
2 spring onions, sectioned.
1 sprig Chinese parsley, sectioned
1 Tbs shredded carrot

(B)
20 gr dried lily buds
10 gr cloud ears

(C)
1 Tbs soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
salt to taste
1 tsp sesame oil
pepper to taste
2 Tbs Shao Hsing wine
1/2 cup water

Method:

1. Soak (B) in water. Wash and drain.
2. Mix (B) and (C). Pour on fish. Arrange in steamer and steam for 12 minutes.
3. Sprinkle ginger, spring onion, chinese parsley and carrot on top of the fish. Serve hot.

Dong Gui and Mutton Soup

Mutton is rich in Vitamin B. Women could try this soup the fourth week after delivery. This soup helps to refresh vital energy, facilitate blood production and warm the uteri. Avoid drinking this soup when having asthemia-heat or having a cold.

Ingredients:

(A)
300 gr mutton
30 gr dong gui
5 slices chuan xiong
10 dried longan
10 red dates
10 gr yu zhu
3 slices mature ginger

(B)
Salt to taste

Method:

1. bring water to the boil. Put in mutton and cook for 10 minutes. Rinse teh mutton with water.
2. Bring 2 liters of water to the boil in pot. Add in all the (A) ingredients.
3. Bring to the boil and reduce to low heat. Cook for 2 hrs. Sprinkle salt to taste when served.

Dong Gui And Chicken Essence

More dishes for women after delivering babies ...

Dong Gui helps to replenish hormone. Women should drink this soup every three days one week onwards after delivery.



Ingredients:

(A) 600gr chicken breast, boned and skinned.

(B) 3 slices dong gui
3 Tbs hot water

Method:

1. Put (B) in stewing pot. Place a sieve rack on top.
2. Arrange minced chicken on sieve rack.
3. Cover stewing pot. Put it into a double boiler. Cover the lid adn cook for 3 hrs. Ready to serve.

Chicken with Wine and Wood Ear

I am 33 years old this year and most of my friends are about the same age. Right now, some of them just had babies just like I do and unlike me, they don't have the opportunity of someone cooking a regime of healthy chinese food for post-partum ( after delivery ). Chinese has a lot of rule about what's good for women who just giving birth. Like we can't wash our hair for a month ( No way in hell I am going to follow this rule! ). Then we can't eat spicy food for the first month and can't drink cold drink too ( I sneak in some cold drink ). It is said that if we get sick within the first month, our body will have the tendency to get the same sickness for the rest of our life. On the positive side, after giving birth, this is the best chance for our body's type to be changed. If before having a baby you are easily to get sick, then by following all the rules, your body type will be change to healthier one. My own sister in law's skin change to much whiter and clearer after she follow this rule. We had another friend who after following the rule, she becomes rarely get cold or flu. For myself, I found that by following this rule, it's so easy to loose weight because the food is tend to be bland. In fact, my sister in law who gains about 60 lbs, lost all of that weight within 2 months!

So for the next time I had more time again to update this blog, I am going to add more of this healthy post partum dishes for all of my friends out there who just delivered their babies.



CHICKEN WITH WINE AND WOOD EAR

The amount of rice wine could be adjusted according to your taste. Wood ear helps to remove post natal blood accumulated in the uteri.

Ingredients:

(A) 1 free range chicken, cut into pieces
20 gr wood ear, soaked
150 gr cooked peanuts

(B) 1 Tbs sesame oil
100gr shredded mature ginger

(C) rice wine to taste
salt to taste

Method:

1. Stir fry (B) until fragrant. Add in (A). Stir fry well. Pour 2 cups of water. Bring to the boil.
2. Reduce to low heat and boil for 15 more minutes.
3. Season with (C). Bring to the boil and serve hot.

Pork Fat Rule!

Today I saw fresh bacon is on sale at the Asian grocery that I went to, so I bought 2 slabs. At home I search through my new cookbooks that I bought in Seattle, I found that if I grind this fresh bacon, I can make 2 different Shanghainese dishes and still has a little leftovers left. So I search through my closet to find my meat grinder. Some times when I don't need to grind a lot, I will just use my food processor. But I think this time I will use a meat grinder. So first I took off the skin from the meat, then I cut it into smaller pieces about 1 inch. Then I start feeding them into my meat grinder little by little.



Then I separate them into 3. One for making Deep-fried Shrimp Balls, another for making Lion Head, and the last one for freezer.

When making the Shrimp balls I use my food processor to grind the shrimp and mix it with the pork. But when I made Lion Head, I just use my hand.


Above: Lion Head

Making these dishes with pork fat really makes a different. The Lion Head become a lot more tender and the shrimp balls is more elastic but tender.

Off course for people who don't want to use pork fat, I found a great recipe at one of Martha Stewart Book that use tofu. I tried this recipe also and I found it almost as good as the original one that using pork fat.


Above: Deep-fried Shrimp Balls

The same day, I also just made a simple stir fried vegetable. Here in Vancouver, we had such a huge selection of Asian vegetables that I don't even bother to learn their names. If it is for stir-fry, they usually clean them and pack them inside a plastic bag. How convenient!



Then I made another Shanghainese Dish. It's called Steam Fish with Crispy Bean. It's a unique dish that normally you won't find it in a Chinese restaurant. Even I just learn it here in Vancouver. First I steam the fish with green onions , salt, and rice wine. When it's done, move the fish to a different plate without the green onions. Then using this special crispy bean from a bottle, I fried it first. You don't have to use oil, since the crispy bean is in the oil already. So just put them on your wok and fried them until they are starting to get crispy, then add slice green onions and mixed it up. You can add salt and maybe a dash of sesame oil to your taste. Then pour them on top of the fish.







Above: Steam Fish with Crispy Bean